Carbon Nanotube Stationary Phase in a Microfabricated Column for High-Performance Gas Chromatography

摘要

We report a microfabricated gas chromatography (GC) column that uses a thin layer of high-quality singlewalled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as a stationary phase. This 1.0-m-long, 160-gm-wide, 250-gm-deep column has the highest separation efficiency reported to date for microfabricated columns having an SWNT stationary phase. Separation efficiency was evaluated with a Golay plot, in which the minimum of the height equivalent to a theoretical plate was 0.062 cm. The microfabricated column was able to separate n-alkanes having high boiling points under temperatureprogrammed conditions. Use of SWNTs as a stationary phase will be potentially useful for high-performance micro-GC.